2006: Are there alternatives?

March 20, 2006

Editor's note: To help keep readers informed on the issue of a proposed new jail in Otsego County, the Herald Times will regularly print questions and answers appearing on the Web site maintained by the county - jailcomment@otsegocounty mi.gov. The replies are from the Otsego County Jail Committee.

We need alternatives to jail. Locking people up is not the answer. We have a social obligation that focuses on rehabilitation. We need a local residential drug rehabilitation center and a local juvenile detention facility. The local aspect of these facilities is what's most important. (Please respond).

The court system currently uses many alternatives to jail. Most cases are automatically referred to the 511 programs in Otsego County for alternatives to jail. Defendants sentenced to jail were convicted of an offense that carries a mandatory minimum jail term, were convicted of offenses multiple times, or were convicted of violating their probation by refusing to follow a court order.

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First-time offenders do not go to jail unless the conviction mandates a jail sentence. People lodged in the county jail on pre-conviction status are there only because they were deemed a threat to the community or are a flight risk and could not post bail.

A jail serves the community in three ways:

€ It provides a place to incarcerate a person that is a danger to the community.

€ It is punishment for a criminal act.

€ It should be a place that offers rehabilitation to the defendant.

The new jail design will have several secure classrooms in the building that will provide space for rehabilitative programs and GED completion.

A residential drug/alcohol treatment center is not identified as a need as there are several such facilities in northern Michigan already and every offender identified as needing treatment is afforded the opportunity for these programs. The problem exists with their willingness to participate and the court's ability to enforce participation when ordered. Drug treatment is widely used currently in jail, out of jail and as a diversion to jail.

In these tight economic times the county commissioners must first provide mandated services. The county has the constitutional duty to provide for the incarceration of defendants. It does not have the obligation to build and staff a drug rehabilitation center. The jail committee is not aware of any citizens group requesting the county board of commissioners to research, fund and operate a drug rehabilitation center. That would be the first step to this type of endeavor.

A local juvenile detention center would be a benefit to the community. However, these types of facilities have very high operational costs. If the county opened a juvenile detention center the county would become a juvenile care facility by law. There are high overhead costs associated with that commitment. The county would have to not only provide a secure lockup facility but also provide for the educational, medical, and the psychological needs of the youth. Currently the county sends convicted youth that require detention to facilities in other sections of the state.